Turtlerock Forum

Hi there,

Got a wierd problem (maybe bootup HD going?)

When I boot up MacPro..apple thing spins and then looks like it boots normally
but then goes to BLUE SCREEN, mouse still works, no menus on screen

Boot up from system DVD in drive...everything(video) normal
HD repair works fine and says the internal HD is fine.
Bootup from internal drive ..BLUE SCREEN again.

All Digi cards are out of machine..only system drive and monitor.
Ram all OK..hard drive seems to be ok.
Any ideas ?? I 'm stumped

cheers
N
Y
M
O

Nymo, I have a 2009 Mac Pro that's been flaky booting up (think it is the bluetooth module). Anyway, try disconnecting everything including power cable, leave for 1 min then press and hold the power-on button for 10 secs (while everything incl. the power cable is disconnected). Then plug everything back in and start as normal. This resets the start-up options back to the factory settings (or something like that Apple Care told me). Also try swapping your internal system drive to another of the internal drive slots in case the problem is in the drive bay connectors. Are you using a wireless mouse/keyboard with the mac pro?

Steve

Hi Nymo

Do you have only the one computer monitor plugged into you Mac?
Try
When you have the blue screen - unplug any monitors and then plug your main puter screen into your mac. See what happens......

TRy taking out a ram chip and booting again if that doesn't help, take another out and keep going and see if it boots.

You may have to reinstall the OS.


Which OS are you using?

Oh also check your startup options and see if there is something out of place in there.

Hi Guys,

Thanx for your advice...I've tried everything you've said, but nothings worked out yet !

I am running 10.4.10 on Quadcore 2 ghz Mac Pro.

I can get my way around any G4 or earlier Macs..but these new ones

I am now thinking of setting up another hardrive with Snow Leopard on it but that involves new
vers of PT, upgraded plugs etc...don't really want to go down that road though (never had to before)

any other suggestions ??
Cheers
N
Y
M
O

I have a sneaking suspicion you might actually be out of hard drive space. The same thing happened to me
with no warning whatsoever. It appears to boot normally, but then just hangs once the background loads at
the login screen.

Do you have your install disks handy? If so, put disk 1 into the computer (you can open the drive by holding the
eject button down when you first boot it up). Stick it in, then restart while holding the "option" key down. It should give you
a choice (either "HD" or the install CD). It may take a moment to appear. Select the install CD and let it boot up.

- Choose "Utilities" then "Disk Utility" from the menu bar and see how much space you have left on the hard drive with your operating system. If you are running out of space try the instructions below. If not, try selecting your drive in disk utility and using the "repair" and "verify". Once they are done, restart and see if it works.



If you are Outta space...
Do you have another mac or computer handy? If you do, try booting your mac pro while holding the "apple
key + t". It will put it in firewire target disk mode and the mac pro will basically act like a big, inconvenient portable
hard drive. Once this is done (IMPORTANT: A FIREWIRE SYMBOL WILL BOUNCE AROUND THE SCREEN IF YOU ARE IN
TARGET DISK MODE), connect your mac to another computer via a firewire cable. It will appear on your computer
like any other portable hard drive. Browse through, trash or copy/delete some unimportant files on the mac pro's
hard drive then "eject" the hard drive... disconnect the firewire cable... restart... yadda yadda... see if your mac
is buzzing again.

Hi there,

I've got 65gb free !

Cheers
N
Y
M
O

Hmmmm. Other than trying repair and verify with disk utility, I am out of ideas.

Perhaps trying nuking the PRAM? - Holding Command + Option + P + R while booting the computer up.

If you have a spare second drive in your computer, it is possible to reinstall os x then transfer all your
user data and programmer from your old hard drive over to this new installation (provided it isn't corrupted
or something like that). At the end of the installation it will ask you something along the lines of "would you
like to transfer user information" or something like that. Choose the appropriate option, and select the
contents you want to transfer (applications, desktop files, etc, etc). It should save you from having
to reinstall everything from scratch.

Other than that, I'm outta ideas.

Hi NyMO,

Skip over this if irrelevant.

iMac with similar problem(power supply issue) solved
http://discussions.apple.com/message.js ... D=10364079

All I could find that was relevant I'm afraid.

NYMo wrote:Hi Guys,

Thanx for your advice...I've tried everything you've said, but nothings worked out yet !

I am running 10.4.10 on Quadcore 2 ghz Mac Pro.

I can get my way around any G4 or earlier Macs..but these new ones

I am now thinking of setting up another hardrive with Snow Leopard on it but that involves new
vers of PT, upgraded plugs etc...don't really want to go down that road though (never had to before)

any other suggestions ??
Cheers
N
Y
M
O

OK I'd (if you can) update to 10.4.11 as it was the most stable version of tiger and it fixed many bugs.

Now let me get this straight, your using an INTEL mac pro tower with tiger???

Hi there,

Ha Ha...yes, this Mac was supplied with 10.4.10 from the factory !
(its about 3 years old)

cheers
N
Y
M
O

This could sound silly but I had the same problem with my iMac.
What fixed it was using the genuine Apple power cord with the computer and not going through a cheap 4 way power outlet adaptor.
Cheers

walding wrote:
Now let me get this straight, your using an INTEL mac pro tower with tiger???

What's wrong with that? It's still officially supported by Apple.

I did it for years before being forced onto Snow Leopard due to a software upgrade.

Latest is not always greatest.

musikwerks wrote:

walding wrote:
Now let me get this straight, your using an INTEL mac pro tower with tiger???

What's wrong with that? It's still officially supported by Apple.

I did it for years before being forced onto Snow Leopard due to a software upgrade.

Latest is not always greatest.

Nothing wrong with it, just trying to get all the details in.

If you've got a spare drive I'd try installing the OS on that and see if it boots. Sometimes drive problems can get past error checks etc.

You know I reckon I had the same problem once
there was a little button on the mother board that looked black and like something you should not press
unless you knew what you were doing or you were desperate or stupid

anyway I pressed the stupid button whch must have reset somekind of flash memory or something
and it all came good
ymmv

rick wrote:ymmv

I had to google this.

waitup wrote:

rick wrote:ymmv

I had to google this.

But ymmv remember